Grand Prize Winner

 

The Passenger


by Therese North

Sammy was tired. ‘Dog tired’ his mother used to say. He felt like the double-shifts at the mine were killing him, ‘but the pay was killer,’ he laughed to himself. So, as the late October day stretched into dusk, he wasn’t quite sure that the figure standing by the side of the road had his thumb out or not.  

Prose Honorable Mention

 

The Brothel


by Desiree Bustamantes

The quaint little town of Mesilla, New Mexico was delighted to finally have a brand-new schoolhouse constructed in 1930. It had five classrooms and was built in territorial-style fashion with adobe bricks lining the structure, finished off with coarse tan stucco. 

Poetry Honorable Mention

 

The Only Truth is Music


by Larry Ollivier

Enough already! Never in my life
have I heard so much cursing
and complaining, so much rank
self-pitying, so many people
living by their grievances
alone.I get it, times are tough,
but by the gods, can’t we just have
a little music?  

Poetry Honorable Mention

 

Driving to Exit 0


by Laurie Macomber

Google Maps shows we’ll still be connected by one lengthy interstate. A vertical slash of blacktop for 678 miles. If I don’t turn back. I must not turn back. Spotify is girl-power, the rhythm of the road. Beyonce’s on repeat as I head straight south. I treat the car pedals as a piano’s sustain.  

Poetry Honorable Mention

 

NM HAIKU


By Joni Kay Rose

My footsteps defile the creamy-white sand, so smooth, like new-fallen snow. Exploring on foot a dry desert wash: for me, a true winter sport.  

X